Monday, November 12, 2012

Measurement Is Not NOT An Option

Last week, our class went over more of Katie Paine's book that we have been covering for a while--and one topic we talked about (which seems to come up weekly) was measurement. 

One piece of advice that I found funny and very true was "Measurement is not not an option." Although the wording could probably be better for that, I think this is quite the quote for social media. 


Measurement is so very important when it comes to social media because you need to measure how successful you are reaching your target audiences as well as engagement with others (are we making progress?). 

Metrics was something we discussed briefly and I think this is one of the most important things to focus on when measuring your success in social media. 

For those who don't know what metrics are, they monitor what kind of traffic you are attracting and how often. 

Examples of metrics: 

1. Google Analytics

2. Dashboards (Blogs will sometimes have dashboards and options where you can actually track how many views you get on any given day and how successful the time of posting is each day) 

3. SocialMention: Free tool that can help you find where brands are mentioning your company, blog, or social media 

Those are just three out of many that you could do to measure how often people are going to your given site. 

However, metrics isn't just the only form of measurement...

You have to check


  • ROI (Return on Investment) 
  • Conversation mentions 
  • Target audiences you attract



Again, measurement is never NOT an option--so always be sure to measure how successful your site or company is doing with social media. Also, don't forget that you need to set goals so you can hit them by measuring what you need to do to hit maybe a certain number of views or attract a specific audience. 

So go ahead and check out the measurements on your blog! How are you doing? 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

#RIP Hashtags--How Do These Get Started?

Has anyone else ever noticed these #RIP hashtags on Twitter that pop up at random times? I never used to notice them until I saw "#RIPSnooki" trending. My first reaction was, "SERIOUSLY?" I had to check into it right away, so I clicked on the trend and was absolutely appalled by what I saw. 

It's true folks, social media seems to be its own social media assassin. 

Twitter has fatally popular trends


I read several tweets claiming all sorts of things: 

#RIPSnooki, she died in Hurriance Sandy....#sosad

Snooki died giving birth #RIPSnooki #RIPLorenzo

Jersey Shore cancelled because Snooki passed #RIPSnooki #RIPJerseyShore

#RIPSnooki can't believe Snooki is gone...such a terrible accident

Snooki shouldn't have bought that big truck..#RIPSnooki


These are just a few I found online...and I was in complete shock. I then googled if she had actually passed away and it surprised me even more that there were several articles and results popping up claiming "social media is a celebrity assassin." 

No, Snook didn't actually die. Several hashtags have been created that have claimed multiple stars such as Justin Bieber, Morgan Freeman, and Mel Gibson have passed away and the tweets are crazy and explicit. 

I know social media has its ups and downs, but this is seriously one of the craziest things I have ever seen. Why do people make up deaths of celebrities? And how do they get so many people to retweet and use their #RIP hashtags?! 

I am at a loss for words right now. Social media is a way to channel news, and it obviously channels false news as well. Just be sure to check out these hashtags...I honestly am appalled by them. 

What do you guys think of these #RIP hashtags? Let me know your thoughts!